When Bob Williamson first arrived at Alta Lake (now Whistler) in February of 1930, he found himself in a valley bearing little resemblance to the bustling resort town of today. Even getting there was a completely different experience.
Bob came to work as a lineman for the Pacific Great Eastern Railway, at the time the most common and reliable transportation to and from the valley, or, as Bob put it, “the only means of transportation with the outside world.”
Bob Williamson at work on the transmission lines, well before Alta Lake was able to access the electricity they carried. Smith Collection.
For most people, travel was confined to four days of the week: north on Mondays and Thursdays, south on Wednesdays and Saturdays. Passengers travelling from Vancouver would leave on a Union Steamship at 9 am and, after switching to a train in Squamish, would arrive at Alta Lake about 4:30 pm.
The view of Brandywine Falls clearly shows the railway bridge which provided a unique view to passengers. Philip Collection.
When Bob’s wife Florence (Flo) joined him at Alta Lake in September, the pair travelled south, leaving their car in Lillooet and taking the train the rest of the way.
During the summer months a couple of special trains were added to the usual schedule. An excursion train on Sunday ran from Squamish to Alta Lake and back and a Fisherman’s Special headed north to Lillooet on Saturday and back south on Monday. Later, a third through train was added going north on Wednesdays and south on Fridays.
Today, the only trains that come through Whistler are either freight or the Rocky Mountaineer. Those that passed through the valley in the 1930s were mixed trains, carrying a combination of freight and passengers.
They stopped at various restaurants along the way, including Rainbow Lodge when heading south, to provide meals for passengers until dining cars were added later in the 1930s.
A southbound PGE train pulling in to Rainbow Lodge. Jardine Collection.
Alta Lake had two railway stations, the Alta Lake Station at Mile 37 and the Rainbow Lodge Station at Mile 38. Mileages were measured from the Squamish dock, where the railway began (when the railway was extended to North Vancouver in 1956 the mileages were changed to read from there, creating some confusion when looking at older documents).
Bob and Flo rented a cabin from Bill “Mac” MacDermott on the south end of Alta Lake. As Mac usually rented his cabins out to summer visitors, he had to do a bit of winterizing when the Williamsons moved in year round.
By 1934, with the addition of a generator, a pump for indoor plumbing, a gas-powered washing machine and a propane fridge (possibly Alta Lake’s first refrigerator) Bob and Flo were comfortably settled.
Life at Alta Lake had quiet periods, but Bob remembered some exciting moments as well, one of which arrived on the train from Pemberton. A woman was on her way to Vancouver to have her baby, but made it only as far as Rainbow Lodge.
Grace Woollard and Grace Archibald in the Cheakamus Canyon on their way to Alta Lake, 1912. Clarke Collection.
There she gave birth to twins, a boy and a girl. As Bob recalled, the boy was named Philip for Alex Philip and the girl Grace after Grace Woollard, a retired nurse living at Alta Lake who helped with the delivery.
In 1942, Bob and Flo left Alta Lake for Lillooet and a promotion within the railway. By that time, float planes had started arriving in the valley, but the railway remained residents’ main connection between Alta Lake and the outside world.
WHISTORICAL 